


Wait

by Loth-Cat (Starbird)



Category: The Handmaid's Tale (TV)
Genre: Blessed be the Literal Fruit, F/M, Fluff, IDK Why Half of This Is About Kiwi, Season 1 after 1x05 and before 1x10
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-25
Updated: 2019-02-25
Packaged: 2019-11-05 15:09:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17921168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starbird/pseuds/Loth-Cat
Summary: June waits all day to be together with Nick again.





	Wait

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Dcgal814](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dcgal814/gifts).



> This turned out fluffier than I planned. It was supposed to be hotter. Ah, well!
> 
> For [dcgal814](https://dcgal814.tumblr.com) because all the angst in [“In the After”](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17742983/chapters/41861912) made her sad. <3

My morning starts early today. Serena hears there’s kiwi at the market, and she is Serena Overjoyed. Oranges weren’t enough. Despite the fact that I go to the market at the same time every day, it doesn’t stop her from making a damn racket in the house and waking me up.

I hate her.

I love kiwi.

I’m stealing her kiwi.

I dress and go downstairs, tired, wishing for coffee, thinking about Starbucks and how overpriced and overhyped they were. I preferred little independent cafes myself. I also used to make my own lattes at home. We had to supplement with formula a little bit when I was nursing Hannah, and we got this snazzy formula mixer that also came with a milk frother. I’m not sure why, but I can only assume Prince Lionheart brand knew what was up. Formula is considered an Agent of Darkness here, a product of The Evil One. They’d rather throw it back a century or two and have wet nurses. I’m not sure if I agree with this or not. While I’m all for breastfeeding, I’m freaked out by the concept of some other woman giving her boobs to my kid.

Except it won’t ever be my kid, if I manage to get pregnant here – which I don’t really want.

Then again, I think with a smile as I come into the kitchen and catch a glimpse of Nick outside, waxing that ridiculous car the Waterfords take so much pride in, I’m not exactly preventing it.

“Kiwis,” Rita says shortly, and punches the bread dough with fervor.

“I heard,” I reply. Everyone heard. Serena will be as sour as a kiwi if she doesn’t get her way. “Maybe you can cut them up into little stars for her.”

Rita snorts.

“Offred,” Serena says as she sweeps into the room. “Blessed morning. The market has kiwi.”

“Praised be His bounty,” I reply, and think of the Bounty commercials. Were those the ones with the bald dude with the earring? No, that was Mr. Clean. I try not to smile as I think of that big, buff man on his hands and knees scrubbing a floor. He should be in a porno.

The door opens and shuts, and Nick comes into the kitchen. A wash of warmth passes pleasantly through me at the sight of him, and I want to smile, but I don’t because Serena is there.

Serena gets to smile at him instead. “Blessed morning, Nick.”

She must be _really_ excited about that kiwi. She needs to get a room with it. Or a whole bathtub full, where she can bathe naked in it, slimy green sliding all over her skin.

The thought nearly makes me laugh, and I duck my head and cough into my fist.

“Offred,” she says sharply, and I look up to see her frowning. “Are you sick? If so, could you please not cough in the kitchen, over the food?”

“Sorry, Mrs. Waterford,” I reply, backing away demurely from Rita. I bump into Nick and we both quickly step away from each other. I wasn’t even aware that he had moved next to me. “Just dry air.”

“Nonsense,” she says. “It rained last night.” Her gaze switches to Nick. “The wax should be dry now.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he says, and it’s his cue to leave. Behind me, I hear the door open and shut again, and I miss his presence already.

I wait until the next time I see him.

* * *

It happens at lunch. Serena is noshing her kiwi in the dining room, and I’ve squirrelled one away for Rita and me. We’re smiling mischievously over it when Nick enters the kitchen.

“Blessed be the fruit,” I say with a smirk, because damn, I’m good at jokes. He gets it right away and give me a hint of a smile. He doesn’t respond in kind because he obviously doesn’t believe in that stuff and thinks Gilead is stupid as fuck. In addition to being horrifying and atrocious and every other synonym I can think of. I play a game in my head sometimes that I creatively call “Thesaurus” where I try to remember as many synonyms as possible for a word.

I have a _lot_ for Gilead.

“Walk on the wild side with us,” I say, forking up a chunk of the tart green fruit and holding it out to him. “Take a bite of the forbidden fruit.” Rita isn’t a lawbreaker, but Serena Joyless is out visiting another evil bitch and Waterford is at work masturbating to thoughts of a world of just men. We’re safe right now (as “safe” as we ever are).

“I’ll get you a clean fork,” Rita says quickly, like the biggest thing to be concerned about here is Nick and me swapping germs. Oh, Rita, spit is by far the least offensive thing we have swapped. But we let her, because obviously.

Nick takes the chunk of kiwi and eats it, and I watch him, studying him. Is this something he likes, or is he just being polite? There’s still so little I know.

“Good?” I ask quietly. Somehow this moment has left me a little breathless.

“Good,” he says. His eyes meet mine for a moment before he looks away.

Rita nods at the fridge. “There’s chicken salad,” she says. “Made with real mayonnaise.”

I want to joke, _Who’d you sleep with for_ that _?_ but Rita does not have that kind of sense of humor. Nick crosses to the fridge as I say,

“I prefer tuna salad,” and I catch another barely there smile. It’s a silly joke, lame at best, but it’s all we have. “The best is that stuff at Subway that sat in a vat with water at the bottom.”

Rita makes a face. “Ew.”

I smile and pat her hand. “I’m just kidding, Rita.”

She returns my smile, then looks over at Nick and rebukes him. “You mind not eating all of that? Save some for the rest of us.”

Nick glances at her over his shoulder. “I’m hungry.”

“What are you, a growing boy? You’re a full-grown man. Put that back.”

_A full-grown man. Why, yes he is. Yes. He. Is._

I wait for the next moment to be with him, that thought in my mind until I am.

* * *

It happens after dinner, surprisingly. Waterford has some bullshit announcement about some bullshit I and everyone else give zero fucks about, and he calls us all into the sitting room to natter on about it. I stand there as I’m supposed to, head bent down, hands clasped together, thinking obscene thoughts like how to write an article on “5 Ways to Kill Your Commander,” “Pricks with Small Dicks: The Power and the Privilege,” or “Commanders Who Can’t Get It Up: What You Should Know.” It’s dangerous thinking, but I have trained myself very well in disconnecting my mouth from my brain, so there is absolutely no way I would ever give away my thoughts.

Besides. It’s not as dangerous as what I _want_ to be thinking about.

_5 Ways He Gets Off on Making You Come_

_Guys Who Don’t Have Anything to Prove_

_Men Who Know_ Exactly _How to Use It_

Holy shit, is Waterford _still_ talking?!

* * *

Finally, I get my chance to sneak away. The household is silent, and I slip out quiet as a shadow. I’m at Nick’s in less than 30 seconds, and he opens the door so quickly, I know he was waiting for me.

“I missed you,” I say, slightly out of breath from the anticipation, from my racing heart, from the fear of being caught. I’m kissing him already, pushing him back with my body as I grab at my zipper and start pulling my dress off. Did I mention it’s been days since I’ve been alone with him?

“Wait, wait,” Nick says as he huffs out a quiet laugh. “I’ve barely seen you all day. How are you?”

“Done waiting.” I don’t need his manners and chivalry and for him to be a gentleman. I just need _him_.

I’ve pushed him back far enough that we’re at the bed, and we tumble down onto it. I lace my fingers through his, my dress half off, and smile down at him.

“Are you done waiting, too?” I ask.

“Yes,” he says. “I am.”

He kisses my chest, and then his hands go to my dress to help me get the rest of it off.

No more waiting.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm [@sharkraybay](https://sharkraybay.tumblr.com)! Come say hi and scream about this amazing show and ship with me!!


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